Western Union Partners with Russia’s Largest Online Payment Service — Yandex.Money

June 2, 2015

Western Union, a leader in global money transfers and payment services, and Yandex.Money, the largest online payment service in Russia, announced their collaboration. The agreement will enable more than 22 million Yandex.Money users to send money in minutesoverseas to their friends and relatives. The Western Union network comprises of over 500,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories across the globe.

Consumers can now send fast, convenient and reliable Western Union money transfers on the website money.yandex.ru, from an e-wallet or a card linked to an e-wallet account. The money will be available for payout in minutes at Western Union Agent locations at banks, in grocery stores, pharmacies, and post offices—places visited by customers every day. To collect money, recipients need to provide, amongst other things, the money transfer control number and a valid ID.

“The world is going digital and Western Union is introducing a new online channel in Russia to meet the needs and preferences of our web-savvy customers,” said Alexandru Badulescu, Regional Vice President, Eastern Europe, CIS and PAKAF, Western Union. “We are strongly committed to the Russian market and our agreement with the largest Russian online payment service, Yandex.Money, enables us to make money transfers even more convenient and accessible for consumers. Additionally, the service allows the receiver to collect the money in cash thus bridging the gap between banked and unbanked customers.”

“International money transfers is a promising area of our future development,” said Maria Gracheva, CEO at Yandex.Money. “We expect to see significant growth in transfers as a result of our agreement with Western Union. Now this new feature will allow to make transfers via Yandex.Money even to a larger number of users who do not have an e-wallet.”